About 60 homes and a brewery could soon rise at the site of the once mighty Piedmont Mill One, the latest in a series of steps that promise to transform the old Piedmont mill village back into a vibrant community.

Kudzu, crabgrass and cracked asphalt cover more than a dozen acres of riverside real estate in "downtown" Piedmont, and most of the store fronts in its block-long, century-old business district are empty.

The greater Piedmont area has grown by more than 30% since 2000, according to U.S. Census data, but the village center itself has been in decline since the J.P. Stevens textile company shut down manufacturing here in 1977. A smokestack is all that is left of a mill that stood on the site for more 99 years. It burned down in 1983. When the roof started to leak on the village's community building, the cash-strapped owners came up with money to fix it only after lightning blew out a chimney and they collected insurance money on it.

"When the mills were closed in the '70s a lot of jobs were lost, but when the mill burned and was torn down in the '80s, I mean, that sort of ripped the heart out of that community and everybody left," said Larry Webb, an investor who is personally financing the restoration of the mill village's old mercantile store. "I mean everybody moved."

This Wednesday, June 12, 2019, photo of the Piedmont community's business district shows how most of its century-old storefronts stand empty, but locals say they are counting on Greenville growth southward and the attractions of the Saluda River to bring prosperity back to a community that lost its textile mills in the 1980s.(Photo: Anna B. Mitchell)

But with growth radiating out from the city of Greenville just 15 minutes away, developers are betting on a turn in the market — one that counts on millennials coming of age and looking to buy into village life, affordability, historic authenticity and proximity to a city center.

Nine out of the mill village's 10 buildings along Main Street have changed hands since early 2017, according to county property records, with one of the owners dubbing themselves "Piedmont Alive LLC." Another investor — William Brock Jr. of Summerhill Properties — bought five acres and a former Piedmont Mill warehouse on the Anderson side of the river earlier this year for $425,000.

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It is in this context that a Greenville development team is weeks away from purchasing 11.5 acres of riverfront property — the site of the former Piedmont Mill One — and building 60 townhouses and cottages there. The development is directly across Main Street from the mill village's old mercantile store, itself months away from a full restoration with six business and eight apartments.

Developers Richard Greer and Brad Skelton did not disclose how big an investment the riverfront development could be, but 60 homes alone at the average sale price of a new house in Greenville County (about $175,000) would bump the land values there to at around $10.5 million.

The market value of the land today is about $106,500, according to Greenville County records.

"Piedmont, if you look at it on MapQuest, it's closer to Falls Park than Simpsonville is," Greer said. "Most people don’t think like that."

A Renaissance appears to imminent for this ready-made walkable village.

Townhouses and a riverfront brewery

Greer, who runs State Investors LLC, and Skelton, of Red Oak Developers, are working together on the riverfront project where the oldest of the community's four former mills once stood. If plans proceed as they say, the project could include a riverside brewery, shops, river access for kayaks and a park along the riverbank where the developers can't build.

"We will put some real nice green space in, including public access for a concert series," Skelton said.

Smokestacks rise above a field of kudzu on June 12, 2019, at the site of the old Piedmont Mill One on the Saluda River in Greenville County. A Greenville developer recently announced he plans to build a commercial and residential development on the site, which has say empty since the mill burned and was torn down in 1983.(Photo: Anna B. Mitchell)

Greer and Skelton went public with their plans for Piedmont at a July 16 finance committee meeting of the Greenville County Council where they sought support in their pursuit of state tax credits for the riverside project. Greer had previously laid out his plans last fall at a Piedmont Public Service Commission meeting, according to a report in the Williamston Journal, but Greer told The Greenville News late last week that he has a new partner — Skelton — and an updated vision for the project.

"As you know, the plans are preliminary at this point, but we have a pretty good idea what we'd like to see," Greer said.

The Greenville County Council certified the site as eligible for the tax credits, and the developers are moving ahead with the project, which includes buying seven parcels from three local owners and evaluating the site's soil and ground water for any possible contaminants. One of the property owners is the Piedmont Public Service Commission, which recently approved a contract to sell their 0.4-acre parcel for $42,000.

A Greenville developer has proposed building a mix of townhouses and businesses where the old Piedmont Mill One once stood along the Saluda River in Piedmont. As of late July 2019, the developer was negotiating the purchase of about 11.5 acres from multiple property owners and working with the state health department to make sure there are no environmental problems on the site.(Photo: Anna B. Mitchell)

The riverfront project comes a year after Webb announced last year he intended to restore the mill village's long-empty, 114-year-old mercantile store. Once the ground floor is finished — likely by early 2020 — the mercantile will have room enough for six businesses. Eight apartments on the second floor will come later.

A coffee shop, a breakfast-and-lunch diner, a dentist's office, a tap house serving craft beers and wines and an artists' studio with a gallery and classroom space will be moving in.

"All the retail is pre-leased," Webb said. "We have leases signed on all of that."

A plan and a government boost

Nothing in Piedmont happens fast.

Webb's quest to breathe life back into the 25,000-square-foot mercantile building had to start with earning a place on the National Register of Historic Places, which is imminent. Meanwhile, a restoration plan — required to receive historic tax credits — is in the final phases of approval by the South Carolina Department of Archives and History.

"While it has been sitting there vacant and not much happening to it, there's been a lot going on behind the scenes to get to the point where we can build," Webb said.

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A Greenville News report details the destruction of the Piedmont Mill in October 1983.(Photo: The Greenville News)

Webb is taking advantage of state and federal tax credits in order to finance the restoration while keeping leases affordable. Before his crews can touch a single nail, they had to document everything that was original and historic about the building. If windows needed to be replaced, they had to be handmade like the originals. Before any bricks can be laid, masons must first document the historic mortar mix and replicate that.

The preparation and the work, he said, has not been cheap. He declined to say how much his investment is amounting to except to say it is "not inexpensive." Without the tax credits, he said, the project likely couldn't happen and the old building would continue to sit. He called it a perfect example of what tax credits should be used for: bringing people and businesses back to a community that needs it.

Built in 1905, the old mercantile building in Piedmont, shown here on June 12, 2019, once housed a pharmacy and a soda shop. In a July 19, 2019 interview, owner Larry Webb said he is close to getting the mercantile listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has tenants lined up to move in by early 2020 once restoration is finished.(Photo: Anna B. Mitchell)

"No matter what, at the end of the day we are still in Piedmont, and Piedmont still has a way to go," Webb said. "The rents have to be very competitive. We can't charge Easley rents or Powdersville rents or Greenville rents in Piedmont. It's just not there yet. The tax credit money helps reduce the cost of the building to the point you can have affordable rents."

Similarly, Greer and Skelton are seeking state income-tax credits for their riverfront project under the state's Textile Communities Rehabilitation Act. Under the act, the developer can seek tax credits equal to 25% of the site's rehabilitation expenses. The point of the law is to support redevelopment of old mill sites in depressed areas.

"One thing that happened is the General Assembly passed the Textile Rehab Act back in the 1990s," Greer said. "But most of that was taken advantage of in the metro areas, not in these small textile towns that suffered the most."

The U.S. Census considers Piedmont, which is not an incorporated city or town, a "designated place" with a population of roughly 6,200 people at last count. Median income there was estimated at $45,700 in 2017 and unemployment 6.5%, compared to $53,700 and 3.5% in Greenville County as a whole.

Greer is also working on redevelopment projects at old mill sites along the Saluda River in Williamston and Pelzer.

"There's lots of opportunity, but these have been depressed areas for a long time," Greer said. "We are trying to take them from distressed to a more vibrant area."

Decades of waiting

For Anne Peden, a local historian whose mother taught at the former Piedmont High School, the transformation has been decades in the making. When a group of Clemson University students sketched out a possible riverside park back in the 1990s, the excitement was palpable, she said.

"That kind of fell through," Peden said. "We could not get the funding. I was not involved, but some of my friends were. They were very disappointed."

Peden wrote a grant to get the leaky community building's roof fixed, only to never hear anything again. The Piedmont Public Service Commission owns the building but is primarily charged with fire protection in the area.

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This newspaper clipping from Sept. 4, 1881, details the rise of the Piedmont Mills.(Photo: The Greenville News)

Tracy Wallace, administrator of the Piedmont Public Service Commission, recently threw his support behind an 860-home subdivision off Bessie and Old Pelzer roads that could have boosted the commission's tax base by $200 million.

The Bessie Road project failed last week when the Greenville County Planning Commission struck it down over infrastructure concerns. Nearby residents also spoke out against suburban sprawl ruining the largely rural nature of the Piedmont area.

"Hopefully this downtown project will kick in, and we won't have to worry so much about the subdivisions," Wallace said.

Peden, among those who opposed the large subdivision, said she favors dense development where it belongs — in downtown settings like the mill village. Webb said he heard similar support when he spoke to the Lion's Club, the women's club and the historical society.

"A lot of the young folks want no upkeep on their grounds," Peden said. "They don't want to be cutting grass. That's fine with me, as long as you are leaving that green space."

Shown here in a June 12, 2019, photo, the Piedmont Community Building is the most substantial physical remnant of the once sprawling textile operations in the mill village that sits on the banks of the Saluda River in Greenville and Anderson counties. As of July 2019, the Piedmont Public Service Commission was in negotiations to sell a small lot behind this building as part of a planned redevelopment of 11.5 acres where Piedmont Mill One once stood.(Photo: Anna B. Mitchell)